This is an excerpt from the TUC book "Hazards at Work: Organising for safe and healthy workplaces", the best-selling guide to health and safety at work. To buy a copy order here (if you are a safety representative on a TUC training course please speak to your tutor about getting a discounted copy)

BASIC FACTS ABOUT YOUNG WORKERS

In the study Too Young to Die published by the TUC-backed Hazards magazine in 2006, 16 to 24-
year-old workers were warned that they should make sure they don’t become one of the young workers seriously injured at work every 40 minutes in the UK or killed at a rate of one every month. Some of the facts from Too Young to Die include:

• In Britain a worker aged 16–24 suffers a reported workplace injury requiring more than three days off work every 12 minutes of every working day. One young worker is seriously injured at work every 40 minutes and every month one is killed.
• In 2004/5, 12 workers aged 16–24 were killed at work (16 in 2003/4) and provisional figures show 4,389 suffered major injury (4,331 in 2003/4) and 14,954 were injured badly enough to be off work for three days (15,973 in 2003/4). Many incidents will be going unreported so will not be included in these statistics.
• Due to inexperience and lack of training 20 to 24-year-olds in the UK have a higher reported accident rate than most other age groups and across Europe 18 to 24-year-olds are 50 per cent more likely to be injured in the workplace than more experienced employees.
• There are just under four million 16 to 24-year-olds at work in the UK (3.85 million). Half a million of these are aged 16 to 17, 1.75 million are aged 18 to 21, and over 250,000 are starting work for the first time.
• Just under a million young workers are in insecure or temporary employment in which they are less likely to receive health and safety training. Previous TUC research found that over one third of 15 to 24-year-olds had received little or no health and safety training.

According to the HSE at www.hse.gov.uk/youngpeople/index.htm young people, especially those new to the workplace, will encounter unfamiliar risks from the jobs they will be doing and from the working environment:

• All people are at particular risk of injury in the first six months of a job as they may be unaware of existing or potential risks. Young people will frequently be in this category.
• Young people may lack experience or maturity or may be unaware of how to raise concerns.
• They may not have reached physical maturity and therefore lack the strength demanded.
• They may be eager to impress or please people with whom they work.

Historically the law has recognised the risks by restricting employment of young persons in certain high-risk activities and requiring higher standards of instruction, training and supervision than for adults.

The TUC in its guide for safety representatives Young Workers [pdf] at also stressed the importance of remembering those young people who are on work placement and apprenticeship schemes. The TUC guide refers to the half-a-million school students on work placements each year, and at any one time, over a quarter of a million people on government-supported apprenticeship schemes. This will often be the first time that most young people experience the work environment with the consequential risks.

LEGAL AND OTHER STANDARDS FOR PREVENTION AND CONTROL

Young workers should be protected by the same laws as other workers. See the following chapters in this book:

• SRSC Regulations 1977 – Chapter 3, with reference to safety representatives’ rights and consultation
• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – Chapter 12, dealing with the general duties of employers and employees under Sections 2–9. Generally, the employer has a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all employees, including young workers
• Working Time Regulations 1998 and the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2003 – Chapter 44, with regard to the specific requirements regarding young people and working time. See also the TUC WorkSmart web page which covers many aspects of working time for young people

There is also some specialist legislation dealing with young people at work, such as the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. See the TUC WorkSmart web page which covers many aspects of children’s work rights at

WHAT CAN SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES DO?

General principles

The TUC in its guide for safety representatives Young Workers [pdf] encourages safety representatives to protect young workers in the workplace in the following ways:

• You can encourage recruitment of young people into unions whether they are in full-time training or employment.
• The health and safety of young workers should be a standing and separate agenda item on safety committees, to review health and safety arrangements for young people and monitor performance.
• Young people should not be required to undertake tasks where their lack of experience may put their own or other people’s health and safety at risk. Such tasks should be clearly identified in the health and safety policy.
• Particular care should be taken when placing young persons in work involving use of dangerous machinery or harmful substances. Young people are often more susceptible to health damage from exposure to toxic substances – although harmful effects may not appear until later in life.
• There must be proper arrangements for supervision. Work operations requiring constant supervision should be clearly identified – this may mean recruitment of more supervisors.
• Supervisors and first-line management should always be adequately trained in understanding the risks and control measures connected with the work young people are required to do.
• Every young worker should be given adequate health and safety induction training to explain the hazards of the job and precautions to be observed. Induction training should emphasise not only the young person’s duty to co-operate but also what they are entitled to expect from their employer and others. Safety representatives should be given the opportunity to take part.
• Health and safety training should be an integral part of job training and work experience programmes. Full information on health and safety matters should be made available, for example, on articles and substances.

Safety representatives have the legal right to be consulted on the health and safety content of training programmes for young people – they should be involved in the planning of schemes at the earliest possible stage rather than reacting to problems when training programmes have started.

Safety representatives should report their concerns and those of their members to management in writing. Use Chapter 7 above for ideas on how you can make sure that management get things done.

Guidance for safety representatives: training schemes and work experience

As soon as proposals for any scheme involving young people begin to be discussed at the workplace, employers should involve safety representatives. Safety representatives could draw up their own agenda for discussion with management and the organisers based on the seven points outlined below (adapted to suit local conditions).

1. Safety policy: the employer’s safety policy should be examined to see what it says about the special problems which arise from employing young people. If it needs to be revised, prepare some suggestions.

2. Health and safety performance: the employer’s health and safety record should be studied, including the accident record and any enforcement action by HSE or local authority inspectors. If the attitude to improving health and safety performance is poor, this should be drawn to the attention of the placement organisers or training agency.

3. Work tasks and risks: the tasks which students or trainees are going to be required to undertake should be studied in detail. What are the inherent risks? How serious are they? Is the industry or process one which has a higher than average accident rate? Are there obvious dangers such as use of powered machinery or tools, potential exposure to toxic
substances, working at heights or working with or near site transport vehicles or in confined spaces?

Safety representatives must be satisfied that the tasks are safe and healthy for young people. Remember that under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, no employer should employ a young person for work which is beyond their physical or psychological capacity; involving harmful exposure to agents which are toxic or carcinogenic, cause heritable genetic damage or harm to the unborn child or which in any other way chronically affect human health; involving harmful exposure to radiation; involving the risk of accidents which it may reasonably be assumed cannot be recognised or avoided by young persons owing to their insufficient attention to safety or lack of experience or training; or in which there is a risk to health from extreme cold or heat, noise or vibration.

4. Restrictions: having made a judgement about the risks, safety representatives can develop their own views about those tasks in the workplace where young people should not be involved; those for which constant supervision by a competent person is required; those which require extra training and instruction. The employer should clearly designate such tasks in the health and safety policy. Workplace hazards are not always obvious to young workers.

5. Induction: a structured health and safety induction programme should be provided for students or trainees. Safety representatives should be given the opportunity to explain their role at an
induction.

6. Supervision: in addition to supervision of potentially hazardous tasks, safety representatives should consider how students or trainees are going to be supervised in general during their time on a placement or training programme. Supervisors should also be trained in health and safety problems when working with young people.

7. Health and safety training: safety representatives may consider the health and safety content of the job training itself. Many regulations now contain detailed guidance on the information and training for all workers and, in particular, young persons. Although health and safety training should be an integral part of job training it should not disappear among everything else. Separate time should be regularly put aside for health and safety training throughout a scheme. There should be an effective means to check on how much of what students or trainees learn about health and safety is actually retained by them in practice, e.g. assessed fire drills, question and answer sessions, practical demonstrations.

Safety representatives can use the points that they have considered under 1–7 above to place pressure on the employer to meet their obligations.

Apprentices

The TUC and the Learning and Skills Council have produced separate advice for safety representatives on apprentices at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/Apprenticeships.pdf The advice suggests practical steps that safety representatives can take to help to ensure that apprentices learn and work in a safe, healthy and supportive environment.

Checklist

Download the Young Workers Checklist (PDF)

FURTHER INFORMATION (in alphabetical order)

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

Various resources on young workers health and safety in Factsheets 61–66

Hazards magazine website

• Excellent news and resources on Hazards young workers web page
• Too Young to Die

HSE priced and free publications

• For all the latest documents containing resources about young people at work, go to the HSE web page
• Alternatively, obtain a free copy of the latest HSE Books catalogue, CAT 34, by telephoning 01787 881165

HSE young people at work website

The HSE has a specific web page which draws together HSE information on young people at work in one place

Labour Research Department (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

Health and Safety Law – an LRD Guide £9.50

Simon Jones Memorial Campaign

Simon Jones was killed on 24 April 1998, aged 24, on his first day as a casual worker at Shoreham dock. He was sent to work unloading cargo inside a ship – one of the most dangerous jobs in the country – with only a few minutes’ ‘training’. Campaign aims and resources

TUC (see Section 6.1 for contact details)

• The TUC health and safety and young workers web page
• The TUC worksmart young workers web page
• Play Safe at Work leaflet, free with sae
• Young Workers: a Guide for Safety Representatives [pdf]
• Apprenticeships: a Short Guide for Union Safety Representatives [pdf]
• Essential information for safety representatives. Keep up to date on health and safety by reading
  Risks, the TUC’s weekly e-bulletin for safety representatives

Trade union information

• Many unions provide guidance on young workers. The website addresses of all trade unions are on the TUC website
• Hazards magazine has listed the health and safety pages of most trade unions at
• Contact your union or visit your union’s website to find out if they produce any guidance on young workers. For example, the NUT has produced a guide called Managing Health and Safety on Work Experience [pdf]

Copyright © Trades Union Congress 2008